Worldbuilding Tips, Tricks, and Ideas

[M0NST3R]

I figured I would open a thread on Worldbuilding as I haven't seen any listed and I'm honestly surprised nobody has brought up the topic before in a threat.

If you have ideas you want to bounce off of other people go right ahead, everything is fine as long as its related to worldbuilding.

Here is a solid channel to help start off worldbuilding if you are focused on realism: https://www.youtube.com/user/Artifexian
As for organizing your worldbuilding material I would like to recommend Campfire Blaze and World Anvil as both are very useful to cover a variety of topics.

If you would like help making maps for buildings I would recommend Dungeon Chemist. Their Kickstarter is already funded (well funded at that) but it is also a useful resource in general for story writing: https://www.dungeonalchemist.com/

Thank you to IdanaHamz for pointing out the typo.

 

[wowfucktron]

I’m writing a novel and it’s basically 1984 meets Atlas Shrugged with Fahrenheit 451 as the third wheel. The whole story is nothing but “dog whistles” for everyone.

Give me ideas for extremely over the top and super high tech surveillance systems.

The more outlandish the better.

 

[Tscheddov]

@wowfucktron

How about this: the Government or some Company uses Rays emitted by all kinds of displays (TV's, smartphones, tablets,...) to ruin people's eye sight (turns 'em blind) and claims it to be a mysterious disease or an evolutional thing.
These organization(s) then pretend to be the saviors and offer to replace the eyes with artificial cybernetic eyes. But these new eyes secretly send a video signal to the Government (or whoever) so that they can see and record everything the people see.

OR:
every human gets a micro-chip installed in ther Body that holds important individual information. These micro-Chips are used to pay stuff, to identify yourself or help medics to get your medical information like blood type an alergies in case of an accident or when your in need of medical treatment by scanning it. These also hold information on your driving license, if you got none you cant even start a car. (basically replaces ID, creditcards, cash, . . .)
so far, so good. People use that and think it is convenient since you don't need to carry a wallet with countless ID and credit cards.
secretly people are tracked and even computers, TV's and other stuff gather and store the activities on the micro chip. So the government is able to read out evrything a person did (Browser hinstory, copies of created and saved documents, . . .)

 

[wowfucktron]

@tscheddov
The microchip idea I was already planning. Everyone in my dystopia is “tagged” by a megacorp.

The eyesight idea has my interest piqued.
I was struggling to come up with a coherent manner of having people be permanently glued to screens.
Maybe having screens be a “home remedy” system for eyesight degradation would be pretty interesting.

Eyesight degradation could be used as a metaphor for “social programming.”

Hmmmm this could work.

 

[Tscheddov]

@wowfucktron
I'd be glad if i can provide you some ideas😀

in terms of social programming, what if the megacorp uses its technology to control peoples perception. Maybe things that should not be seen are edited or filtered out of everyones vision.
But I'm not sure if thats a step to close to the ghost in the shell cyberbrain matter whre you get implanted false memories and see stuff thats actually not real . . .

i like dystopia

 

[wowfucktron]

@tscheddov
The novel is going to be about communists and social media. Full blown dystopia.

However, I was going to write it in a manner that makes it hard to tell what exactly I’m criticizing.

 

[Tscheddov]

@wowfucktron
sounds interesting
communism seems like a good template. controlled (social-) media is vital for every totalitarian state.
i was born in a socialist country and now decades after the downfall of the socialist system there are a lot of reports and documentations that show how government controlled the radio, the tv and the newspapers in this country have been.

 

[IntrovertedJean]

A world where electricity is substituted with magic (cliché i know) that’s it. The reason why it’s like that is the magic power of humans mixed with electricity causes explosion.

But ofc just because there is no electricity it means that you are stuck in the middle ages. Some technological advances are achieve, just need to fine tune which.

 

[M0NST3R]

@IntrovertedJean World of Megumin? Sounds interesting. How does lighting and static factor in?

 

[bigtiddyoneesan]

@wowfucktron

Give me ideas for extremely over the top and super high tech surveillance systems.

(Not a surveillance system per say.) All toilets are manufactured with irremovable bidets. Every time a bidet is activated (they activate automatically), it also shoots out doses of Hyoscine that are injected rectally. This function is off by default, but the government is able to toggle the function remotely for each individual bidet, resulting in the pacification (of varying degrees) of civilians that may be cause for concern.

Very practical and realistic, I know.

 

[wowfucktron]

@bigtiddyoneesan

Government enforced surprise anal rape

Are you Alex Jones or something?

I might as well include this. Violent rape plays a huge recurring role in the story, so I might as well just check off everything while I’m at it.

 

[IdanaHamz]

I once took a peek on the Stackexchange forum and it seemed like a good resource.

I figured I would open a threat on Worldbuilding

No you wouldn't. Not even in a secret way. The army of Worldbuilders will come to you.

 

[IntrovertedJean]

@M0NST3R same way how static works, low level static won’t cause harm but too much will be painful but not deadly. Lightning is still present but more deadly. No person survives when hit.

A person with a bigger magic pool would equal to a person with less resistance. While individuals with very little magic can handle electricity better.

The set up would be, instead of electricity for neuron transmission it would be magic veins and electricity destroys those.

 

[Tscheddov]

@wowfucktron
did you make any progress with your novel ?

 

[wowfucktron]

@tscheddov
Can’t work on it at the moment due to some life things but once those are over I’m starting on it.

At the moment all I’m doing is just casually making notes and changing them constantly like a maniac.

 

[Mangalover9000]

@wowfucktron
Have you come up with the characters already? Seeing as it is a "dystopian" themed novel, would you be adding the main character as a "heroic" person? or a "dark" hero? Before starting the novel, its best to have an idea of the world setup. Once that is done, decide upon the ending, like, how do you want your story to end? If you're writing a "steampunk" + "dark" themed novel, then its best to have the MC solve a temporary problem, like for Eg (Just an EXAMPLE) > MC's sister (only family) gets kidnapped by a factory manager, and MC has to find which factory and save her from there.
At the end, you can say that child labor or whatever they're doing at the factory is illegal. You can make this problem by portraying a part of the novel through the sister's perspective of the time she spent there and the friends she made there. So to destroy such factories (and save his sister) MC could join a rebel group. But you have to end the story on a foreshadowing. Now you have clear beginning too - His sister gets kidnapped. A solid ending would also give you a clear beginning. This will also prevent you from not having an idea of continuing the series.

 

[wowfucktron]

@mangalover9000
I’m struggling to come up with agonists.

My problem is I come up with an idea, write it down, ten seconds later a dumber idea gets in to my head and I fixate on it until it frustrates me.

I have the majority of the world built out, I have the state party built (it’s really fucking creepy) and I have the central theme of “totalitarianism is a beast that cannot be killed if it’s prey and predators decide to enable it.”

Think of my problem like an engineer getting caught up in cool ideas and losing track of what they were originally supposed to do.

But right now I’m fixating on house hunting, so this is obviously sidelined for now.

 

[Mangalover9000]

@wowfucktron
So in short, "dictatorship will continue until the ones who want to destroy and the ones under it continue to let it" huh? Hmm... Its pretty heavy... The ones under it want it to continue because they're weak and can't manage it themselves... The ones who want it gone are not strong enough to oppose it... Something like that?

 

[wowfucktron]

@mangalover9000
Sort of.
The predator: the public
The prey: the government
The beast: totalitarianism
The environment: control of information

The beast is enabled by its prey and predators via its environment, ie disinformation/propaganda and an undereducated public.

In this story, governments around the world have been outlawed by politicians seeking to virtue signal over how much they hate the “system,” for reference the system is never quantified beyond “I don’t like it because it doesn’t benefit me.” Following the obvious power vacuum, a single corporation now runs every country instead of government.

The corporation in this story comes up with increasingly outlandish ways to pacify people and tell people why they are evil and need to rely on their corporate overlord, TYROREX, for moral guidance.

One of the more (excessively) edgy forms of symbolism I wanted to use was a public who rejected paper money and replaced money with an intangible currency, TYROREX invented microchips that can detect rape. Yep, rape is used as currency. The currency is also handed out in completely random amounts and is subject to random taxation with no forewarning.

The whole point of rape being used as currency was meant to highlight the worth of individuals in a totalitarian system as well as highlighting the economic worth of individuals in the grand scheme of life.

Men: highest potential, lowest floor
Women: lowest potential, highest floor

I’m struggling to come up with characters, so I’m debating going for a fake historian’s account by making the novel a propaganda novel for TYROREX.

 

[Mangalover9000]

@wowfucktron
I don't understand how you're gonna make "rape" a currency. The men can rape the women so the men could earn money. But what about the women? If they too in turn get money, then won't brothels be set up, and soon, won't "rape" become "sex"?
Also, are you using "rape" to also signify that men are higher than women? (not that I'm a sexist or a woman mind you)

As for the characters, you have to introduce a problem. The setting is complete. Now, why should the MC intervene? That is the question. Formulate a beginning and ending from that.